


Cover Up with Makeup in the Mirror, Tell Yourself It's Never Gonna Happen Again

by goodpersonwithafetishforevilpeople



Series: Dennigail [9]
Category: It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Anger, Angry Sex, Angst, Asphyxiation, Blood, Blood and Injury, Borderline Personality Disorder, CMNF, Caught, Choking, Cruelty, Crying, Dad Dennis Reynolds, Domestic Fluff, Domestic Violence, Dubious Consent, Established Relationship, F/M, Face Slapping, Hair-pulling, Injury, Mental Health Issues, Past Rape/Non-con, Physical Abuse, Platonic Life Partners, Rape/Non-con Elements, Rough Sex, Sadism, Slapping, Strangulation, Vaginal Fingering, Verbal Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-18
Updated: 2019-07-18
Packaged: 2020-07-07 21:33:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19858351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goodpersonwithafetishforevilpeople/pseuds/goodpersonwithafetishforevilpeople
Summary: "A pebble in the water makes a ripple effectEvery action in this world will bear a consequenceIf you wait around forever, you will surely drownI see what's going downI see the way you go and say you're right againSay you're right again, heed my lectureDo you feel like a man when you push her around?Do you feel better now, as she falls to the ground?Well, I'll tell you, my friendOne day this world's got to endAs your lies crumble down"- The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, "Face Down"





	Cover Up with Makeup in the Mirror, Tell Yourself It's Never Gonna Happen Again

**Author's Note:**

> Potential trigger warnings for parents fighting and genuinely angry sex... Bit of a hard left turn here 😢

It's been a while since Brian has seen Abby, but he definitely hasn't forgotten about her. He clicks the cap back onto his brown marker once he finishes drawing her hair. He picks the picture that he just drew of her playing catch with him up from the floor of his bedroom and admires it. Some of the lines are kind of squiggly due to the thin, bumpy lines in the flooring, but it still looks amazing, in his opinion. He'll just have to remember to put a hardcover book down under the paper first next time. "Abby!" he shouts as he jumps up in excitement when he hears the doorbell ring. He almost falls running to the front door before unlocking it and flinging it open. "I drew you a present!" he announces proudly, grinning with excitement.

"Awww, thank you, Brian!" Abby gushes as she takes the paper from him and smiles at the brightly coloured image of the blond stick figure boy throwing a baseball to a much taller stick figure woman. In fact, she's about an inch taller than the clouds.

"Mommy and Daddy taught me how to play catch after school yesterday! We even went to the store and bought baseball gloves! We got one for you, too! That was my idea!" Brian excitedly informs.

"Really? That's awesome!" Abby sets Brian's drawing down on the coffee table to scoop him up in her arms and spin him around.

Brian giggles as his legs swing through the air, his arms latched together around Abby's neck. "Whoa," he says with a slightly disoriented expression once Abby sets his feet back down onto the floor. He wobbles a little bit before flopping face-first into the couch.

Abby laughs as she sits down next to Brian on the couch. "Where are your parents?" she asks with a smile.

Brian immediately lifts his face from the cushions to deadpan, "I ate them."

Abigail laughs. "Brian..." she admonishes teasingly.

Brian laughs. "I'm just kidding," he assures. "Daddy's outside raking because it's supposed to rain tonight, and I think Mommy's in her room doing laundry."

"Oh," Abby says, surprised that Mandy didn't come down at the sound of the doorbell. Her puzzlement is resolved when she hears the toilet flush.

"Hi, Abby!" Mandy cheerfully greets over the rapid sound of her own footsteps.

"Hey, Mandy!" Abby greets with a smile as she gets up from the sofa to hug her. "Look what Brian gave me!" she beams, displaying the drawing to Mandy. "I hear you guys have gotten into catch recently."

"Yes! Dennis actually already got the ball and the gloves out; everything's in the backyard. Shall we go join him? I'm sure he'd appreciate the break from the yard work, anyway," Mandy says with a smile as she leads the way from the living room to the back door through the kitchen.

Abby sets the picture back down on the coffee table and follows Brian and Mandy outside into the backyard after they've dressed themselves in their shoes and windbreakers. The late afternoon, early autumn chill is accented by the wind whipping lightly against Abby's jacket and flicking her ponytail about. "Hey, Dennis!" she calls over the sharp whistling of the wind.

Dennis finishes stuffing another pile of dead leaves into a yard waste bag before turning around to smile at his girlfriend and his little family. "Hey, baby!" he calls as he meets the other three at the small pile of baseball gloves, one of which contains a worn, grass-stained baseball. "This one's yours," Dennis informs Abby as he hands her her glove. He picks up the one with the ball in it and puts it on as everyone else also wriggles their left hands into their gloves and spreads out several paces into a shape that somewhat resembles a square. Dennis meets Abby's eyes and smiles at her from across the yard before tossing her the ball.

Abby catches it with a satisfying SMACK! in the palm of her new glove, though she was trying to catch it in the pocket. It didn't really hurt, though. She smiles at Mandy, then tosses the ball to her.

Mandy catches it. "Ready, Brian?" she calls to her son.

"Ready, Mommy!" Brian responds excitedly, grinning with his glove poised. The ball bounces off of his glove and onto the ground, but he picks it up immediately and jubilantly exclaims, "Did you see that, Mommy? I almost caught it!"

"I did see it, honey! Good job!" Mandy praises. "Now, remember to throw it OVERhand, like Daddy and I showed you yesterday."

"Okay!" Brian cheerfully agrees. "You ready, Abby?" Brian asks as he throws the ball as hard as he can right to her without waiting for an answer. "Oh no! I'm sorry!" He throws down his glove and rushes over to her in worry when the ball smacks her right in the face.

"Ow!" Abby yells as she tosses down her glove to cup both hands over her smarting nose. "Fu- uzz! Fuzz! Fuzzfuzzfuzzfuzzfuzz!" she curses.

"Baby, are you okay?" Dennis asks with concern as he and Mandy also discard their gloves and rush over to the younger pair.

"I'm sorry," Brian says as his eyes well with tears. He feels so guilty. What if Abby stops liking him now?

"It's okay, Brian. I know it was an accident," Abby assures. "Is it bleeding?" she asks Mandy and Dennis as she removes her hands from her face.

Brain recoils at the sight of the bright red blood pouring from Abby's nose and nearly touching her lips. He grabs the leg of his dad's jeans and hides behind Dennis.

"It's okay, buddy," Dennis murmurs as he strokes Brian's hair. "It's just a bit of blood."

"Come on, hon," Mandy says as she takes Abby by the hand to lead her towards the house. "There's some gauze in the bathroom. I'll clean you up."

"Okay. Thanks, Mandy," Abby says as the women make their way back into the house. The bathroom is very small, with an enclosed shower stall, a toilet, and a pedestal sink beneath a wall-mounted mirror. There is a pair of cupboards above the toilet that compensates for the storage space that would be afforded by a counter. One corner of one of the cupboard's shelves catches Abby's eye, partly because the translucent plastic bottles are bright orange, but mainly because their existence is entirely unexpected. "Is Dennis bipolar?" she asks before even realizing that such a personal inquiry might be rude.

"What?" Mandy says as she tears some toilet paper from the roll and dampens it to clean the blood dripping from Abby's nose. She drops the bloodied squares into the garbage can beside the toilet before tearing the gauze strips to roll them into twin tight little cylinders. "Oh. His pills," she says, glancing up at Abby's line of sight into the open cupboard. "No, he isn't bipolar."

"Oh," Abby says, somewhat surprised considering the four different prescription mood stabilizers with Dennis's name on them. "Is he epileptic or something?" she asks, remembering from what she learned in her psych course that mood stabilizers can also be used as anti-seizure medication.

Mandy sighs. "No," she says as she carefully stuffs the gauze into Abby's nose and puts the rest back in the cupboard before closing it. "He's... He has borderline personality disorder."

"Oh. We read about that really briefly in class. It's kind of like a combination of bipolar disorder and antisocial personality disorder, right?"

"Well, that's oversimplifying it a bit. I actually read up on it when I learned of his diagnosis. The mood swings are more severe than with bipolar disorder; it's either you're on top of the world or it's the end of the world. The illness comes with a lot of pain and very strong emotions, but those who have it are often extremely intelligent and creative. It's far more common amongst women, but men can suffer from it, as well."

"What causes it?"

"Most of the research points towards childhood trauma as its primary cause. It's very common amongst survivors of childhood sexual abuse or rape."

"Oh," Abby says quietly. "I didn't know he was... I'm sorry."

"Well, he claims he wasn't."

"Wait, are you talking about when he was fourteen? With Ms. Klinsky?"

"He told you about that?"

"Yeah. He told me it was consensual, though."

"That's what he seems to believe, but he was fourteen and she was around fifty. How consensual could it have been? The fact that he's still in denial about his trauma isn't very surprising, but neither is the manifestation of it as one of the most severe and complex mood and personality disorders."

"I don't have a psychological disorder, though," Abby immediately retorts on reflex, somewhat offended at Mandy's assertion that every young teenager who's had sex with an adult will inevitably develop a severe mental illness.

"... What?"

Abby's eyes instantly widen in fear as soon as she realizes what she just said. Her heart rate picks up as she begins to sweat despite the coolness of the room.

"Abby... what are you -? Are you saying you were raped?" Mandy asks quietly with concern.

"No!" Abby hastily assures. "No, I - I've never had sex against my will."

"But... you had sex with an adult when you were underage," Mandy deduces.

Abby feels her mouth go dry. "I - I..."

Mandy feels her blood run cold as the memory of words on a screen flashes in her mind: "Go to confession this weekend." She remembers Dennis crying to her and making her promise him that he'd always have her and Brian... "... Five years ago. I never thought I'd be dating her one day." Mandy swallows nervously as she steels herself for her next question. She has to know. "Abigail. I need you to answer honestly. Was it... Was it with Dennis?"

Abigail feels the colour drain from her face as her stomach churns. She's beginning to feel queasy from the stress and tension. "I - I need to go," she says as she hurries past Mandy out of the house and into her car. She peels out of the driveway as Mandy hurries after her, calling, "Wait!"

Mandy sighs in frustration as she watches Abigail speed home. There's so much she needs to ask her. Although, one answer seems to be obvious.

"Hey, Mandy!" Dennis cheerfully calls as he comes around to the front yard with Brian in his arms. "Is Abby alright?"

"She just left, actually," Mandy informs as she folds her arms across her chest as Dennis steps up onto the porch.

"Oh?" Dennis says with concern. "She got hurt that bad?"

"In a way."

"... What?"

"Put Brian down. I'm gonna give him dinner, then I'm gonna give him a shower and put him to bed. You can finish with the leaves. I'll call you in once he's asleep."

"Um... Am I not having dinner?" Dennis asks with confusion as he sets Brian down before Mandy.

"No," Mandy says curtly as she takes Brian by the hand to lead him inside before slamming the door in Dennis's bemused face.

Dennis returns to the backyard to finish his yard work, hopefully before it starts to rain. What's with Mandy? She's not usually like this. Did something happen while she was inside with Abby? Did Abby say something critical about Brian that could've upset Mandy? That doesn't seem likely, but it's possible. Dennis's pondering distracts him as he rakes the fallen leaves into piles and stuffs them into yard waste bags. He manages to clear the entire yard of the crisp, brown and floppy, yellow carcasses just as storm clouds eclipse the setting sun. He brings the bags around to the front of the house one by one and sets them at the curb. He returns to the backyard to lean the rake against the interior wall of the shed before closing and locking it right as the first few drops of rain fall from the overcast sky. He turns around when he hears the back door squeal open.

"Brian's in bed now," Mandy informs Dennis. "Come in before it really starts to rain."

Dennis complies, shutting the door gently behind him so that he doesn't disturb Brian. "What's up?" he asks, just above a whisper, as he kicks off his shoes and follows Mandy into their room.

Mandy closes their bedroom door before leaning her back against it and once more folding her arms across her chest. "Sit down on the bed. I've got a few questions for you."

Dennis nervously complies. He doesn't really know why he's nervous, but Mandy seems... well, pissed, to be quite frank. He clears his throat and sits up a bit straighter in an effort to convey confidence. "Shoot, then."

"When did you first hook up with Abby?" Mandy asks, deciding not to beat around the bush.

"Probably about a month ago now. Maybe a bit more. Why?"

"You're sure?"

"I mean, I don't remember the exact date, but it was the first or second week of September."

"You're definitely sure about that?"

"Yeah, that's when we decided to start dating. What, am I in trouble for not getting her something to commemorate our one-month anniversary or something?"

"I didn't ask you when you started dating. I asked when you first slept with her."

"That would've been the night we started dating."

Mandy decides to try a slightly different approach: "What happened when you first met her?"

"What do you mean? I told you, we met at a waterpark."

"So, what, you just rode waterslides with her?"

"No, you know I hate waterslides. She actually approached me; she pretended to be my daughter in front of this hot mom I was trying to pick up so that she could shame me into giving her twenty dollars."

"And then?"

"I gave her the money, then I decided to follow her, then I found her when I heard her getting reprimanded for trying to steal a pair of sunglasses, so I taught her how to steal like someone who actually knows what they're doing. Or so I thought. She ended up pulling a fast one on me after what I'd thought was a really sweet moment."

"What kind of sweet moment?"

"She gave me a water gun that she'd stolen so that I would "never forget her," supposedly, but it turned out she just wanted to swipe my key for the locker with all our loot in it."

"Okay. And then?"

Dennis shrugs. "That's it. Then she left."

"Hmmm," Mandy says skeptically.

"What?" Dennis asks. "Look, if you're mad about the stealing, she was already a little con artist, and I promise I won't teach Brian to steal."

"It's not that..."

"Then what?"

Mandy decides to just bite the bullet. She really hopes she's wrong. "Did anything... sexual happen when you first met her?"

Dennis blanches. "Did - Did she say it did?"

"Well... she said enough."

"What, um, what did she say, exactly?" he asks nervously as he absently cracks his knuckles.

"I'd like to hear your side of the story. Oh, and Dennis? There's no point lying."

Dennis closes his eyes and inhales deeply. This is NOT how he would've imagined disclosing this to Mandy. "Okay. So, um, I guess she might've told you that we sat and chatted together under a tree for a bit, and, um, I let her hold my hand, but then she kissed me and so I said that I should return her to her parents, but she wanted to keep hanging out, so I said, "Fine," but only if she didn't kiss me again. She was good about that, but somehow we got to talking about sex - She brought it up - and I sort of accidentally told her all about Ms. Klinsky and yeah, I mentioned I was fourteen, so then she started trying to persuade me to fuck her, and I told her it's illegal and that I didn't even want to since she looked like she was fucking ten or some shit, and then she got mad and groped me, and she KEPT pestering me, so I... I fingered her. I got her off with just one finger and some dirty talk and that's all that happened and I felt awful about it as soon as I did it, but she seems okay, and she seemed okay at the time."

"So, you would've wanted to if she'd looked her age?"

"No! No, I just mean... I mean, she looked prepubescent, so I didn't even see her as a sexual being. Thirteen is still way too young, though, of course, but I mean... ten is just unfathomable. After all, I did lose my virginity when I was only a year older than she was when I fingered her - at her request!"

"Mmhm. So, you'll just touch any kid who requests sex from you?"

"No! No, she was curious and -"

"Oh! Oh, she was curious!" Mandy can feel her anger and disgust beginning to erode her composure. "What if, in six or seven years, Brian tells you he's curious about sex? Then what?"

"I would NEVER hurt our son!" Dennis shouts as he jumps to his feet.

"Well, I never thought you'd finger a fucking THIRTEEN YEAR OLD CHILD!" Mandy shouts.

"I DIDN'T WANT TO!"

"Oh, so she raped YOU, now?"

"Well, no, she didn't RAPE me, but she fucking annoyed me into doing it, practically."

Tears sting Mandy's eyes as she whispers, "I can't believe this. Dennis, I trusted you. We're partners. We're PARENTS. How can I possibly raise a child with you now?"

Dennis feels tears begin to sting his eyes, as well. "Because I love him, Mandy. If anyone ever touched him inappropriately, I swear to God I would break every fucking bone in their body."

"Dennis, how do you think Abigail's parents would feel? You need to end it. It's not right. You need to break up with her."

"You don't think heartbreak's traumatic? People kill themselves over it, Mandy. Mandy, she - she told me she loves me."

"Dennis... she may think she loves you, but I think you know it's infatuation at most. It would be best to end this relationship while it's still in its relative infancy."

"That's not for you to decide," Dennis chokes out as his eyes begin to well.

"No," Mandy concedes. "But your involvement in Brian's life is."

"What?" Dennis asks, near panic. "Mandy, what are you saying? You can't take him from me! You PROMISED you wouldn't!"

"THAT WAS BEFORE I KNEW YOU WERE A FUCKING CHILD ABUSER!"

"THIS is child abuse! You think Brian's sleeping through this? The walls aren't fucking steel!"

"You know goddamn well what I mean," Mandy whispers harshly. "It is downright SICK that, of all the people in the world, she's the one you're insisting on dating, given the history there. What is it, some kind of sick thrill?"

"Yeah," Dennis says sarcastically. "That's exactly it. She's just some sick fucking fetish. Not like I actually care about her."

"You wouldn't have done what you did if you cared about her."

"Is that so? You think just the fact that I'm dating her is sick?" Dennis's anger and defenses set fire to his reason as his blood begins to boil. "Well, it gets better." Stop talking. Seriously, stop fucking talking, man. Quit while you're only this far behind. "Sometimes, we pretend that I actually am raping her." Dennis ignores Mandy's cringe. "In fact, what gets us off more than anything is when we pretend she's my little teenage daughter whose mean Daddy likes to punish her sexually."

"You know, there are girls who actually go through that," Mandy says coldly.

Dennis feels a jolt of guilt shock his system. He feigns indifference to the disturbing feeling with a frown and a shrug.

Mandy scoffs in disbelief. "Wow. Maybe you were misdiagnosed; maybe you're just a psychopath."

"I have feelings. It's awful, the things that happen in this world, but I can't change them. Of course I feel terrible for those girls."

"Yet, you're willing to use such a painful situation to enhance your sex life."

"Oh, please. Don't act like you're not into it."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"You used to love it when I'd call you my good, obedient little girl."

"That's different! I didn't see that as some sort of... incest roleplay. I thought it was, like, a kinky 1950's thing."

"Ah, yes, because the subjugation of women is so much more wholesome."

"Well, no, it's - it's..." Mandy sighs. "Okay. I guess I'm beginning to see what you're saying."

"Good."

"I still don't know how I feel about having you around Brian, though."

"WHAT! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!"

"Don't you DARE raise your voice at me! Any other mother would do the same! Hell, some would have you put away!"

"Mandy, I'm not attracted to children NOR MEN, let alone my own goddamn son!"

"What about Braden?"

"What? What about him?"

"Haven't you slept with him? Twice, at least?"

"With Abby."

"So, you've never had sex with him?"

"Well, so what if I have? What relevance would that have to any of this?"

"Well, it would make you a liar. Be honest, Dennis."

"You want me to be honest? Fine. Yeah, okay? I had sex with him the night I met him. I didn't think I'd want to, but he won me over when he got down on his knees and looked up at me with his wide, little boy eyes and begged, "Please, Daddy?" So, I fucked his face and called him my good little boy for swallowing."

Mandy feels her stomach begin to churn with queasiness. "Does it... Does it turn you on when Brian calls you -"

"OF COURSE NOT!"

"OKAY! Well, you can't blame me for asking; you just said that you were attracted to Braden because he looks like a little boy."

"I NEVER SAID THAT! I SAID HE HAS BOYISH FEATURES! HE'S OBVIOUSLY A GROWN MAN!"

"WELL, NOW WHO'S SHOUTING? God, you've really got something against letting kids have peace, huh?"

"You know what? I don't need this," Dennis decides as he roughly shoves Mandy out of his way and storms out to their car. The ignition rumbles to life as heavy rain pelts the windows and the roof of the car. Dennis doesn't even realize that his supposedly aimless driving has led him to Abby's apartment until he finds himself parked in her driveway. He shuts off the car and digs his phone out of his pocket to call her.

"Hi, Dennis," Abby says timidly. She has a feeling she's in some sort of trouble. For real, not for fun.

"Hi, Abigail. Can I come in? I had to get away from Mandy."

"Um... Okay. Come on up. I've unlocked it." Abby slips her phone into the front pocket of her pink fleece pyjama pants as she unlocks the front door.

"Hey, baby," Dennis greets as he shuts and locks the front door of Abby's apartment after making his way through the downpour to her door, his hair and clothes wet and clinging to his skin.

"Hi," she practically whispers. "Um... is everything okay at home?"

"Why don't we go into your room?" Dennis suggests.

"You, um... You don't want to just talk out here?"

"No," he says firmly.

Abby involuntarily gulps audibly as she leads Dennis into her room and shuts and locks the door. She refrains from turning on the light, preferring to dampen the potential of this situation with the privacy of darkness. The only sound in the room is that of the raindrops falling all at once and picking up speed like an uproarious applause as they assault the roof and the windowpane. She tentatively sits down at the foot of her bed and looks at Dennis. His face is heavily shadowed, but his glare could freeze over Hell, his mouth a stern frown. "I'm sorry," she whispers as she feels hot tears prickle behind her eyes.

"Mmhm." Dennis is silent for a few moments before saying quietly, "You promised you'd never tell."

"I didn't mean to! It just - It just sort of slipped out. I didn't even really tell her anything; she just sort of figured it out. Maybe..." Abby slinks to her knees and looks up at Dennis as she begins to undo his belt. "Maybe I could make it up to you?"

Dennis caresses the back of Abigail's head, then yanks harshly on her hair, forcing her to face the ceiling. "You think I'm so fucking easy, don't you?"

"No!" Abigail says as she winces. "No, I don't think that!" Tears roll down her face, which stopped bleeding at least a couple hours ago, as she gazes up at Dennis with pain in her eyes. "I just... I just want to make you happy."

Dennis's blood rushes to his dick at the sight before him: Abigail on her knees in tears, begging for forgiveness in pain... genuine pain. He knows it's fucked up, that this is actually sick. But right now, he just doesn't care. He wants more. "You wanna make it up to me?"

Abigail nods as a sob escapes her.

"Then you're going to let me do WHATEVER I fucking want to you. This isn't our usual rape kink shit. I'm talking dark stuff. I am extremely angry with you, and I am going to tell you exactly why, I am going to tell you exactly what I think of you right now and you're not gonna like it, but you're gonna be fucking silent and just listen to every word. I won't stop if you cry, I won't stop if you beg, I won't stop until I'm fucking FINISHED. Now, strip and lay down," Dennis orders as he aggressively releases Abigail's hair.

Abby sniffles to slow her sobbing as she undresses to ask meekly, "Can I... Can I safeword?"

Dennis considers the question for a moment before deciding, "On anything physical or sexual. Not on the verbal abuse, though."

Abby visibly cringes at Dennis's wording as she lays down on top of her covers. She fixes her watery gaze on Dennis as he climbs up onto her bed to kneel between her legs.

Dennis slaps Abigail's thighs apart. He teases her with his fingers until she's just wet enough for him to slip two fingers inside. "This what you wanted? Was it worth it? You know, she could take him away from me. She could tell my boss. She could tell the fucking COPS." Dennis increases the pace of his fingers as he goes on, "I could lose my job, my family, and my RIGHTS as a free citizen because of you! All because of some selfish, horny little piece of shit who just HAD to get her way! You know, you talk so much shit about your parents, and I don't doubt that you probably didn't get enough attention, what with seeking it from grown men before you were even in high school, but I'll bet they're so fucking happy to be rid of you now. Probably happier than you are to be rid of them."

"You have no idea what my childhood was like," Abby grits out.

"Oh, what?" Dennis prompts with mock sympathy. "Daddy wouldn't fuck you no matter how much you pestered him?"

"SHUT UP!" Abigail shouts through sobs that wrack her body like the storm upsets the trees outside. "You're such an asshole!"

Dennis scoffs bitterly. "Well, that's far from the worst thing I am, thanks to you." Dennis fingers her so vigorously that it can't possibly feel good as he closes his other hand around her throat and presses lightly. "How would you like it if, in six or seven years, someone like... Oh, I don't know... Brian were to pester you for sex?"

"I wouldn't do it," she bites out in a voice like flint. "No matter how fucking irritated I got."

"Is that a dig?"

"Does it feel like one?" Despite the darkness, the anger in Dennis's glower burns itself into her vision. Her chest feels like it's burning, too. Fuck. She can't breathe. She can't fucking breathe. "Too... tight," she rasps as she reaches up to encircle Dennis's wrist. Stars burst into the darkness like fireflies as he squeezes her throat even tighter. The dancing stars in cartoons... Those make so much sense... That's exactly what she's seeing. But it's calm, now. She no longer feels like she's drowning... Rather, it feels like a fire has been put out in her head. It's a relief. She's slipping under... Underwater... She's already drowned. It's nice. It's peace. It's - She gasps as her eyes fly open. When did she close them? She pants so harshly and for so long that it almost feels like she's hyperventilating. Maybe she is. Her breathing returns to normal when Dennis slaps her harshly across the face. "What the hell! Were you trying to fucking kill me?!" she shrieks in abraded indignation.

"Shut up," Dennis scoffs. "Don't be a fucking idiot."

"Get. Your fucking. Fingers. OUT!" Abby slaps Dennis's arm as she tears herself from the bed, flinging the covers out of her way as she storms, naked, out of her room and into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her so loudly that it rattles in its frame. She flicks on the harsh light above the mirror in the blindingly white bathroom. "What... the fuck...?" she mutters as she traces her fingertips over the deep reddish-purple dots that adorn her pale face. They almost look like freckles. Abby flicks off the light and storms back into her room, slamming her door shut as she flicks on her light. "What the FUCK did you do to me?!" she demands, pointing to her face.

Dennis rolls his eyes. "Relax. It's called "petechiae," or "petechial rash" or whatever. It'll heal fully within a few days. I've had it."

"What - What is it?"

"Burst capillaries. Sounds worse than it is."

"People will ask questions at school -"

"Put some makeup on it," Dennis advises callously before laying down on his side.

Abby is torn between telling him to leave and keeping him here for the sheer comfort of human company. She turns off her light before laying down next to him and pressing her bare body against his back, throwing her arm around his waist. She rests her forehead between his shoulder blades and cries silently into his shirt. A small, foolishly optimistic part of her waits for him to gently place his hand over hers or turn around and kiss her and ask if she's okay, but he never does. He never drops the role. Because it isn't a role. Not tonight. She was wrong. She was wrong that morning all those weeks ago when she said that he could never make her feel violated.

**Author's Note:**

> Context/ references:  
> https://youtu.be/IUcj4xnQbPM
> 
> https://youtu.be/4M5NZdXgefU
> 
> https://youtu.be/huzlGMF8BVQ
> 
> https://youtu.be/sdHLI2vTnTY


End file.
